Life abounds in Texas' last surviving bit of coastal prairie

Plot of land is 'invaluable' in restoring others

MATTHEW TRESAUGUE, HOUSTON CHRONICLE |
July 25, 2011

A Blazing Star flower blooms on the Nash Prairie in Brazoria County. The prairie has about 300 different kinds of vegetation native to Texas and is the largest untouched piece of the great coastal prairie. It is owned by the St. Mary's Episcopal Church in West Columbia who will give the land to the Nature Conservancy of Texas.

Photo By Nick de la Torre/Chronicle

Laura Huffman, director of The Nature Conservancy, left, the Rev. Peter Conaty, center, and his wife Susan Conaty, of St Mary's Episcopal Church walk about 59 different species of native grass Tuesday, July 19, 2011, in the Nash Prairie in Brazoria County.

Photo By Nick de la Torre/Chronicle

Jeff Weigel of The Nature Conservancy shows a flowering Rattlesnale Master plant on the Nash Prairie. The unique species of plants are used to produce seeds that will be spread to different parts of the coast.

Photo By Nick de la Torre/Houston Chronicle

Sunflowers bloom on the Nash Prairie in Brazoria County. The prairie has about 300 different kinds of vegetation native to Texas and is the largest untouched piece of coastal prairie.

There is no roadside sign to announce the Nash Prairie, no fence around more than 400 acres of tall grasses that have never been plowed.

Serious bird watchers tend to know about this place, as do wildflower enthusiasts and botanists keen on native grasses. To them, it is a living reminder of a landscape that once covered 9 million acres from Louisiana to south of Corpus Christi.

"This prairie is a beautiful representation of what Texas really looked like," said Laura Huffman, Texas director of the Nature Conservancy, an environmental group.

Some folks might not see the beauty in a hay meadow, as most locals call the Nash Prairie, located about 60 miles southwest of Houston. It does not have the quirky rock formations of Big Bend or the great stands of pine trees and hardwoods of the Big Thicket.

But preserving prairies has become an urgent theme. After 200 years of houses, farms and freeways, less than 1 percent of the coastal tall-grass prairie in Texas and Louisiana remains.

The Nature Conservancy recently purchased the Nash Prairie and a smaller meadow nearby in an attempt to save this slice of the state's heritage. The virgin land will become a preserve, as well as a laboratory and seed bank to help landowners within a 300-mile radius restore their property to its natural state.

Reducing erosion

The prairie also serves a critical role by minimizing runoff and reducing erosion along the Brazos River as it winds its way to the Gulf of Mexico. The ability to hold and filter water is lost when the land is plowed or paved, and that's an important point during one of the worst droughts in Texas history, Huffman said.

"We're living in a state with a water supply that isn't set up for the next 50 years" of population growth, she said. "Conservation isn't just about saving water. It's also about saving these landscapes."

The Nash Prairie, once part of the 15,000-acre KNG Ranch, has stayed in pristine condition because of good management and perhaps some divine intervention.

The grassland remained unplowed because of the farming methods of the Czech and German immigrants who settled the area. Cattle infrequently grazed on the property, and the landowners harvested hay once, maybe twice, a year and never in the same pattern, allowing plants time to regenerate.

Hundreds of species

The result is a rich, yet subtle, ecosystem. David J. Rosen, a biology professor at Lee College in Baytown, has identified 311 plant species on the site, including many rare finds. One species — the buttonbush flatsedge, a three- to four-foot-tall plant with a sandpaper-like texture - was thought to have vanished from Texas.

In contrast, the cattle-grazing pasture across the road has a dozen plant species, he said.

"As a template for restored prairie, it's invaluable," he said of the Nash Prairie, which is also habitat for about 120 bird species. "It's the original vegetation, and it's the original landscape. It's almost like a museum."

Until a few years ago, the owners of the hay meadow had no idea about the land's ecological importance. Kittie Nash Groce, a tough-talking Houston socialite who ran the KNG Ranch, willed it jointly to a cousin, St. Mary's Episcopal Church in nearby West Columbia and the West Columbia Hospital District trustees in 1957.

Falling into place

The owners managed the land as she had, but they rarely talked. Then in 2003, the wife of St. Mary's priest heard a Houston Audubon Society worker mention it as one of last remnants of coastal prairie.

"I had never knowingly seen this prairie even though I had driven by it for years," said Susan Conaty, the wife of the Rev. Peter Conaty, St. Mary's priest.

Shortly thereafter, church leaders met with hospital trustees for the first time in nearly 50 years as partners to talk about how to preserve the land. They sold it to the Nature Conservancy for $1.8 million in January.

"It's great how the right people have fallen into place to preserve this land," said Conaty, a New Yorker who arrived at St. Mary's in 2000.

'Where I find God'

For him, the prairie has become a holy place, a place to reflect on something larger than one's self. He often sits among the tall grasses and lets the wind blow over him.

"I've learned to appreciate this place," he said. "This is where I find God."

It may be impossible to recreate the prairie's intricate diversity. A reconstructed version may host only a tiny fraction of the plant species found on the Nash Prairie, experts said.

But environmentalists say a small amount of prairie is better than none. To expand beyond the Nash Prairie, the Nature Conservancy will try to stitch together grasslands through easements, which would put restrictions on how the land is used.

"It will be a challenge to expand because the prairie is located close to the fourth largest city in the country," Huffman said. "But that's the reason why we should do it."